


Cold Feet

by bachelorgirl



Category: Shelter (2007)
Genre: Community: smallfandomfest, F/M, M/M, Post-Movie(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-01-24
Updated: 2011-01-24
Packaged: 2017-10-15 01:20:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/155522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bachelorgirl/pseuds/bachelorgirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's Gabe's wedding day. But he's not the one with cold feet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Feet

**Author's Note:**

  * For [torakowalski](https://archiveofourown.org/users/torakowalski/gifts).



> Written for the smallfandomfest commmunity on LJ. Prompt by torakowalski: "Gabe's Wedding".

"Well, fuck me." Zach had tried to mentally prepare himself for what he was seeing for the entire drive over to the hotel, but apparently he hadn't been very successful.

He saw Gabe grin back at him in the mirror. "Fucking penguin suit and everything." Gabe spun in a slow circle, showing off his black tuxedo.

"I can't even. Like, seriously. I never would have thought you would've been the first of us running off and getting hitched." Zach laughed. "Settling down. Playing house. Mowing the fucking lawn."

"Oh, fuck you. Like you and my lame-ass big brother wouldn't be fucking hitched already if goddammed California could get their act together long enough to let Mom plan a wedding. Dude, you're already fucking hitched. There are gay dudes in Canada with wedding rings who are less married than you two."

Zach tried to stop himself from flushing and rolled his eyes at Gabe, punching him in the shoulder as a distraction. "I still can't believe she fucking said yes."

"Oh, thanks a lot, asswipe." Gabe reached over and looped his arm tight around Zach's neck.

Zach grinned and gave Gabe a bone-crushing hug. Gabe was grinning as he pulled back. "She's pretty fucking awesome, isn't she?"

"You know that she is still way too good for you, even if you are Mr. Something Corporate now." Zach flicked the collar of Gabe's suit.

"I'm just fucking lucky that Heather has a very vague memory of our earliest interactions, in addition to being chronically late for everything."

Zach laughed. Heather Martin was exactly the right blend of perfect for Gabe and, way, way too good for him. Gabe had run into her in the parking garage on his first day working for Larry. She worked at the publishing firm three floors up and she'd been running late (as usual) and Gabe, trying to avoid real work for as long as possible, held the elevator for her while she ran the entire distance of the parking garage.

Gabe was late to work every fucking day for a year, skating by on his stepfather's name and position at the firm. Just getting by until everyone had realized two things about him. Firstly, that although he was a half-hour late every day, he took a half-hour shorter lunch break than everyone else. And, secondly, that he was actually a really fucking amazing PR man. He had spent years perfecting the perfect balance of being just smarmy and charming enough to get exactly what he wanted and knowing exactly how much work he needed to put in to get it. What had made him lazy and underacheiving throughout high school and college, now made him efficient and successful. It was really, really fucking amazing.

The first time Zach had walked in on Gabe in the middle of a business call, he'd had to blink and pinch himself because he hadn't recognized Gabe at all. Of course, three seconds after he'd hung up the phone, Gabe immediately morphed back into the best friend he'd known forever, offered him a joint and directions to the bathroom at the end of the hall with the best ventilation system in the building and it seemed like balance was restored in the universe. Work hard, play harder. It was still Gabe's motto and, it sort of made Zach a little bit relieved that, for as well as Gabe was doing for himself, he had never once brought his work home with him and would still beat Zach to the waves every Saturday morning and would drag him out at the ass-crack of dawn before work. There was comfort in his consistency.

"I also can't fucking believe you're having a wedding. Like a 400 people at a hotel, we've been planning it for a year and we picked out napkins that match the bridesmaid's dresses kind of wedding. I think one of Heather's bridesmaids is actually the daughter of a senator. Or a govenor or something. I heard some people talking. This wedding is way too fucking classy for you." Zach laughed as Gabe held out his wrists to Zach.

Heather had graduated top of her class from some Ivy League school that she'd gone to because her grandfather had built a wing or some shit. She'd breezed through school thanks to her photographic memory, and, if you believed the stories she told, sleeping with her accounting TA all four years. She was about 5 foot nothing, tiny as could be, and was a total lesson in contradictions. She spent more time snowboarding than Gabe did surfing and could match Gabe shot-for-shot on cheap tequila night at their favorite bar. She also spoke three languages, was the daughter of a French Diplomat, a member of Mensa and had double majored in business and physics, for fun.

"Fuck you and do up my cufflinks, jackass. When you get hitched, I better get to wear a shirt with buttons on the goddammed cuffs."

Zach secured the shiny metal to Gabe's shirt and grinned at him. "I think I'll leave this charade to you, dude. You're the one who is going to totally love 400 people staring at him all afternoon."

"I need to piss like a fucking racehorse and then we need to find my slack-ass big brother who seems to have disappeared off the fucking planet. He's being lazy because he got out of best man duty and he thinks that leaves him off the hook." Gabe's voice started to disappear as he wandered into the bathroom on the other side of the hotel suite that was larger than the entire apartment he shared with Shaun and Cody.

"I'm pretty sure he's feeling put out by the fact that he has to wear a suit," Zach called through the wall, pouring two shots of Jack, downing one for himself and pouring another.

"I'm pretty sure that I don't give a shit. What's he going to do when the two of you finally get hitched?" Gabe called over the sound of running water.

"Yeah, whatever, dude." Zach straightened his tie in the mirror. "Are you ready to go, yet? I know you think it's your day, but I'm pretty sure Heather will get them to start without you."

He laughed as Gabe came out of the bathroom, hair standing up in a million different directions. He'd clearly just washed his face and, behind the cocky confidence, Zach could see that Gabe was actually nervous as he handed him the shot of whiskey.

"Dude. I was kidding. Don't tell me you're getting cold feet now." Zach tossed back his second shot. "There's no way that Heather isn't going to be way later to her own wedding than you are. Here, let me," Zach reached up and fiddled with Gabe's hair, attempting to make him presentable. "You go out looking like that and everyone's going to think you knocked her up, dude. Half the people at this wedding already think that there's no she would actually marry you, otherwise. Especially with all of the riff-raff sitting on the groom's side." Zach smiled, a little self-deprecating. It wasn't the first time he had felt entirely out of his league in Gabe's life. Normally, it didn't bother him. Gabe's family's money was just one of those things. It meant a beach house (where Zach had kept his surfboard), and a nice vacation (that Zach had tagged along on) and a fancy private school (where Zach had gone on scholarship) and there was always a place for Zach, even if he'd had to make his own.

"Fuck you, dickwad. You were my goddamned brother even before you started playing house with Shaun and they can all just fucking deal. Besides, the two of you clean up better than all of Larry's prissy-ass family anyway. Heather's senile-ass grandparents are insane, just ignore them and, besides, I'm not marrying the rest of her family, so I don't give a shit. Let them think what they want about me and her. And, besides, it's not like they wouldn't be right."

Zach stopped dead in the middle of adjusting Gabe's tie. "The hell?"

Gabe just nodded. Barely. Zach wasn't entirely sure he hadn't imagined it.

"You did not. She's... you're..." Zach made a vague gesture with his hands that he wasn't sure the meaning of. "Dude you are supposed to tell me this shit! When?"

"We found out last week. Early enough that it's not going to be all scandalous for her family when we tell everyone else. You're the only one who knows."

Zach felt his jaw practically hit the floor. "You're serious."

"As a heart attack." Gabe was totally freaking out in front of him and now it was clear why. Gabe hadn't ever seemed to get cold feet about getting married, but this was different.

And, just then, Zach had this vision of the old version of Gabe morphing into the new version of Gabe and Cody and Shaun and just... everything.

"You are going to be great." Zach meant it. He held up his shot glass to Gabe and clinked their empty glasses together and was relieved when Gabe burst into the biggest grin that Zach had seen since the day Gabe had got his first car.

"You think? I'm scared shitless, man. But, really, it makes today seem like nothin'. Kinda feels like the pressure is off. This whole dog and pony shitshow is like, nothing, in comparison."

"Seriously. You're going to be great. Heather will make sure of it. And, so will I." Zach nodded. He got to be the one with the benefit of the experience this time. Possibly a first in their entire friendship. And, somehow, he just kinda knew Gabe would be great. Every time Gabe set out to do something, for the entire time that Zach had known him, he'd done it. It had always seemed like he'd squeaked by with the barest amount of effort. But, Zach realized that squeaking by every time had given Gabe a pretty good track record.

"Well, you would know. I hope you're right. And, now it's my turn for the wordly wisdom. You do know that someday you are going to need to stop looking embarrassed every time I talk about you and my brother getting hitched, right? Your feet are so cold you probably have fucking frost bite."

Zach busied himself by burying the toe of his shoe into the carpet. "You know Heather's not going to let you smoke up in the house anymore, right?"

Zach just stared at the floor. Gabe didn't do this often, thank fucking God. It made him so uncomfortable that he wanted to stab a pencil into his eye because that would actually be a positive experience in comparison. They were much better when they sorted out their problems by not talking about them.

"You know he'd fucking marry you in a second. And, it's probably because you look like a fucking deer in the headlights anyone says the word to you that he's probably scared shitless to even think the word around you, let alone actually ask you. You and him and Cody are more of a fucking family than any of us even have a fucking clue what to do with or could ever really hope for. I fucking pray that Heather and I will be half as good as you guys. If you won't let him ask you, maybe you should just fucking ask him. Or, just tell him. You guys deserve this, you know. The hooplah and the monkey suits and fucking circus with people buying you expensive shit that you pick out on a whim from Crate and Barrel and Bloomingdales and Bed Bath and Beyond because we care about you, you know?"

Zach shook his head. That wasn't his life. He peeked through the curtains at the sea of people sitting outside on the lawn beside the hotel, dressed in their Sunday best and waiting for the celebration to start. He'd never wanted to be the center of all that.

"You're going to be awfully disappointed in the size of my gift, then," Zach said, still staring out the window.

"Yeah, because that was totally the point, jackass." Gabe cuffed him across the back of the head. "Now, come on. I love you, dude, but we need to get going, it really wasn't you I'm looking to spend the rest of my life with and, if I'm late for my own wedding, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to be stuck with you instead."

"Hey, I'm not a bad consolation prize," Zach said with a small smile.

"Yeah, but, like I said before, I think you're already spoken for, am I right?" Gabe elbowed him in the side and Zach couldn't help but laugh.

"Well..." Zach flushed and trailed off.

"It's cool that you love him, you know. I've said it before, but it's true. It's still cool. We're still cool. We're family, dude. You're stuck with me even if Heather doesn't change her mind today. And, even if you are too much of a pussy to marry my brother."

Zach wandered back over to the desk and poured himself another shot and tossed it back. "Go put your fucking shoes on. You got 30 seconds before I call Heather and tell her to get started without you. Or, maybe I'll just hijack your fucking wedding for myself."

"Dude, if your feet warm up by the time we get to the altar, I'll let you have it. Now, fuck you and give me another shot."

Zach laughed, poured another shot for each of them and passed it over.

Gabe raised his glass. "To cold fucking feet." He clinked their glasses together, laughing as some of the liquid splashed over their fingers.

"Fuck you," Zach said with a laugh.

"I love you, too, Zach. Now, let's go get my ass hitched." Gabe slung his arm across Zach's shoulders and dragged him out of the suite and down the hall.


End file.
